Samsung to take OLED display tech in-house?

Could mean big changes for mobile phones

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Samsung is considering taking full control of its OLED display business by bringing Samsung Mobile Display in-house and, in turn, giving the company first dibs on any new screen technology that's in the pipeline.

As it stands, Samsung Mobile Display is owned by both Samsung Electronics (which has a 64.4 per cent share) and Samsung SDI (which has the remaining 35.6 per cent hold of the company).

Samsung SDI has been around for a good 40 years, creating a number of display innovations – including LCD, PDP and AMOLED.

This is all very well, but Samsung has hinted that its display innovation arm could be about to become part of the big Samsung house.

Considering that Samsung Mobile Display is the biggest manufacturer of OLED panels in the world, then this could mean that Samsung is about to have even more power over a technology that's all set to overtake LCD in the years to come.

Screen there, done that

Reuters quotes Samsung's filing to the South Korea stock exchange as saying: "We are considering merging the business to improve synergy, but a final decision has yet to be made."

Speaking to the Korean Times about the possible buyout, a spokesperson said: "We are moving to strengthen our capability in components and the idea of selection and concentration is in play here."

Samsung Mobile Display is in rude health at the moment, having enjoyed a 45 per cent revenue jump in 2011 to 6.6 trillion South Korean won, which equates to £3.7 billion.

The likes of HTC, Motorola and Nokia are all using the company's screen technology.

While the changing of the guard at Samsung Mobile Display would not stop any of these companies from using the technology, it may well mean that Samsung gets first dibs on new screen tech in the future.